Jakobson's Model of Linguistic Functions and Modern Painting

Abstract

Four of the six functions of linguistic communication postulated by Roman Jakobson were applied to twenty color reproductions of modern paintings. The functions were: Emotive self-expression of the addresser, the poetic (more general aesthetic) function (concerning the material aspects of the message), the conative function (concerning the persuasion of the addressee) and the referential function (applied to the context). Thirty artistically trained and thirty “lay persons” rated the paintings on 5-point scales, expressing degrees of agreement with two statements descriptive of each function. Factor analysis resulted in four factors representing the functions under study. Analyses of variance with the factor scores of the twenty paintings allowed their ranking on the functions for visual comparison. Further analyses of variance showed significant differences for the aesthetic (artistically trained high) and referential function (lay persons high). There were also significant differences between male and female subjects on the referential dimension.